


Sharks and Pilot Fish (oneshot)

by thatnerdbb



Category: Free!, Free! Eternal Summer - Fandom, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club - Fandom
Genre: Cute Nitori Aiichirou, Implied Matsuoka Rin/Nitori Aiichirou, Implied Nitori Aiichirou/Sousuke Yamazaki, M/M, Pilotfish!Ai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 16:01:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4752410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdbb/pseuds/thatnerdbb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aiichirou Nitori is a pilot fish. He followed a shark, too. His shark was one of the biggest, a whale shark by the name of Sousuke. He follows Sousuke, or as he likes to call him Sou-chan, and eats whatever he doesn’t. Not many pilot fish like whale sharks, so Ai is the only one Sousuke has. He’s fine with that, it’s easier. They’ve gotten to be decently close, Nitori will help with directing him around and Sousuke will purposely get more food, so Ai has enough. One day, Aiichirou proposes an idea. Something he’s wanted to try for awhile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharks and Pilot Fish (oneshot)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pilot Fish Nitori](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/142376) by childofsquid (tumblr art blog). 



> Sorry for any errors, I wrote this in about 10 minutes. Just a drabble/oneshot idea I had!

Aiichirou Nitori is a pilot fish. He followed a shark, too. His shark was one of the biggest, a whale shark by the name of Sousuke. He follows Sousuke, or as he likes to call him Sou-chan, and eats whatever he doesn’t. Not many pilot fish like whale sharks, so Ai is the only one Sousuke has. He’s fine with that, it’s easier. They’ve gotten to be decently close, Nitori will help with directing him around and Sousuke will purposely get more food, so Ai has enough. One day, Aiichirou proposes an idea. Something he’s wanted to try for awhile. 

“Sou?” He asks quietly, swimming next to the whale shark. Sousuke’s head turns, giving him a questioning glance. “Well, I um, thought maybe it would be fun to swim closer to the top? We’re always so far, it’s hard to see down here…” Ai mumbled, fiddling with his fingers. Sousuke gave him a soft glare and a little sigh, before swimming up to him. He was much larger than Aiichirou, with large spotted white fin, and a very toned body. Other merpeople looked at the duo, and were shocked at how Ai had managed to grow on the large shark. Aiichirou was small, skinny, and pale. He has a black and white striped fin, and was a good foot and a half shorter than his dark haired shark companion. He had a mess of short silver hair, and a beauty mark under his eye.

“Fine,” Sousuke sighed, swimming upwards. “You’re lucky we already ate, it’s harder to get food up there.” Ai beamed as they swam up to the surface. He popped his head up and out of the water as soon as they got there. He breathed in the fresh air, making sure to keep his gills under the water so he could still properly breath. Sousuke had no plans for the day, and pretty much spent it napping a few feet under the surface whilst Ai kept an eye on their surroundings for him. 

Around mid afternoon, they heard a strange noise. Sousuke recognized it, the sound of a ship. His breath hitched, and he pulled Nitori under the water again. “What’s wrong?” He asked with a small frown. “Its a ship, Aiichirou. We should swim lower.” He mumbled, pulling him down again. He sighed, complying. They should be fine where they were, as long as they weren’t a fishing ship. They couldn’t go further, Ai wasn’t built for swimming as fast as they had been, and was panting heavily, breathing water through his gills desperately. 

When the net fell, Ai couldn’t move fast enough. There were fish around him, and they all got caught. Sousuke had tried, he had grabbed Aiichirou and tried to pull him away but wasn’t fast enough. “Sou! Sou-chan I’m scared!” Nitori screamed, trying to squeeze out of the net. “Ai, relax and I’ll meet you at the surface! Get out of there as soon as you can!” Sousuke screamed, swimming by the net until it was pulled out of the water. Ai was pulled along with all the poor fish onto the ship. He was gasping, trying to breathe but unable to properly breathe the air. The fisherman, seemingly the only one on the ship, was shocked to see a merperson in his net. He thought they were only fairytale, not believing in them. Ai sputtered out a “Please!” as the unknown redhead pulled him out of the net. He set him in the large tub of water, used for when they catch things they intend to release again. Ai dunked himself under, breathing heavy before emerging only slightly, fear taking over his small frame. “Who are you?” he asks, seeing the man before him clearly now. He had red hair and red eyes, but what struck him odd was his teeth. 

Sharp, strong looking. Sharks teeth, that’s what Ai identified them as. Sou had them, just not as prominent because he is a whale shark, not a regular old shark. “Rin. What are you?” the stranger asked, looking at his striped fin and tail. “I’m Aiichirou… Sousuke’s pilot fish,” He said nervously, before blurting out the stupidest question on his mind. “Are you a shark?” 

Rin actually laughed at that, sitting down in the chair not to far from the tub. “Gosh, you too? No, I’m not. Sharp teeth though. What is a pilot fish?” He asks, curious as to how these things exist without people knowing. “I-I’m not sure if I should tell you. You can’t tell anyone if I do!” He squeaks out, hiding his head under the water. A small laugh escaped Rin before he let out an “I promise.” Ai took his head out of the water, a blush on his cheeks. “We follow sharks. Mine is a whale shark named Sousuke! He’s kinda stubborn and quiet, but he’s nice. Nagisa teases me for following a whale shark, but him and Rei-kun follow Sei-senpai which isn’t fair!! Sei-senpai is nice, but I like Sou. There are normal merpeople too, like Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai, that just live in the main city. Me and Sou-chan tend to stick to the outer city,” He kind of rambled, but Rin found it very adorable and took no action to stop him. 

“Oh! Sousuke!!” He squeaked, sitting up taller, before realizing his gills were out of the water and quickly slouched back down. Rin was confused for a moment, up until Aiichirou explained. “Gills, I can’t breathe your air,” he laughed softly, before remembering what he needed to do. “Right! I need you to help me back into the water.” Rin looked confused, before realizing he was right. The water was his home, and while he found Aiichirou interesting he had to return him to the water. “Alright, but I want to see you again. How about you come to the surface one a week?” Rin suggested with a smile. Ai nodded eagerly, wanting to know more about humans. Everyone always warned him that they were dangerous, but he just couldn’t see it. They were basically the same species, after all. 

So Rin helped him back into the water. He grabbed him by the waist, and returned him as quickly as possible. He got concerned when Aiichirou started gasping for water, but he was fine when he dropped him back into the ocean. He swam under to catch his breath before popping back up. “Thank you! What’s your name?” Ai asked, a giggle of excitement bubbling up his chest. “Rin! I’ll see you again, right Aiichirou?” He asked, hopefully that the small pilot fish planned on keeping his word. “Yup! You’ll have to tell me about human life!” He smiled, and so did Rin, flashing his shark teeth unknowingly. 

“Sure thing!” He laughed. Ai was prepared to swim away, but then got an idea. “Call me Ai!” he called out, before diving back into the deep blue depths to find Sousuke.


End file.
